I am running Vista Home Premium. I have a full license of Vista Ultimate in a new box (in other words, it is a full ready-to-install copy, not an Upgrade edition). How do I upgrade from my existing system from Home to Ultimate inline (as if I had an Upgrade edition) without losing my data?

It is not clear to me what will happen if I let it rip. In other words, how "smart" will the install be, like will it notice that there's a perfectly good install of Vista Basic already and ask me if I simply wish to upgrade to Ultimate - or will it pave over my existing installation.

3 Answers
3

The upgrade is supposed to work. It seems like this is the problem you're hitting. Do you have a Vista service pack installed (SP1 or SP2)? How new is the installation media that you're trying to upgrade to?